


2016 Reasons

by Babeldeefish



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Fluff, M/M, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Kiss, One Shot, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:56:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5636407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babeldeefish/pseuds/Babeldeefish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred hated arguing with Arthur. Most of the time the causes of their fights were childish and pointless, and both of them knew. But actually none of them would have ever admitted to be on the wrong side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	2016 Reasons

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the UsUk Secret Santa 2015 on Tumblr.  
> A thank you to my friend Amaranta for the beta-reading.

Alfred's fingers tapped with persistence on the kitchen's table. His legs shuddered frantically while his eyes ran all over the room unable to focus on something.  
He unlocked his cell phone. No messages, no calls. Maybe Arthur needed some time to figure out how to apologize, after all he wasn't used to do that often. Maybe he was just thinking about the reasons of the fight, and about Alfred's absolute fair words. Or maybe he was just accepting the fact that he could not be always right... Quite a burn for the mighty -although former- British Empire, Alfred thought.

A few seconds had passed before he checked again. Still nothing. It didn't matter how many years had passed, some things never changed.  
Alfred hated arguing with Arthur. Most of the time the causes of their fights were childish and pointless, and both of them knew. But actually none of them would have ever admitted to be on the wrong side. It was kind of a matter of honour which resulted in a stubbornness competition, eventually. “Surrender was for the weak”, and they didn't care how much time would have passed without talking to each other if that meant to keep their pride intact.  
And Alfred hated it with all his heart.

However -it has to be said-, the American had always been particularly talented at telling the worst thing at the worst time. Once his brother Matthew had even expressed an interesting theory: according to him, Alfred didn't possess a specific filter which usually prevents the leak of inappropriate comments through a simple and logical deductive reasoning, summed up in the famous quotation “Better remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt”. And that time too, it started like that. The younger of the two spoke a little too bluntly, the British man felt hurt and in a flash they ended up digging up the past and shouting insults to each other, no hold barred.  
Thus on the evening of the 31st December Alfred found himself alone, sitting in the kitchen of his New York penthouse, and looking desperately at his cell phone for a sign from Arthur.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his nasal root, as he sighed in discouragement. A whole day had passed. After the argument that same morning, Arthur had took his hazel coat and left the house. And since then Alfred hadn't heard news from him.  
He spared a glance at the clock on the wall, it was already 9 P.M., only about three hours away from New Year's Eve. What could have been sadder than celebrate it on his own? After all he really cared about Arthur. No, even more. He loved him. After all those centuries, those wars, those misunderstandings, and after all that sorrow that both inflicted to one another through the time he still loved him.  
He needed him.

He knew that his feelings for Arthur had always been something greater than the mere concept of love, as perceived by trivial human beings. His was devotion. That kind of abnegation that leads one to search for its roots into something bigger -yet somehow explainable- just because you cannot accept the very idea of chance. And Alfred refused to believe that his relationship with the Briton was a simple series of coincidences. It seemed absurd how in such a vast universe the atoms which have been generated from the deaths of more than one star and have linked together basically at random gave birth to the both of them. It was unbelievable that among seven billion people that inhabited the Earth they chose each other respectively, following a sequence of incidental events. 

Alfred had always thought the atoms of his own body to have come from the very stars that originated Arthur's one, even without a proper scientific explanation. So, every single moment of their lives had the final purpose to bring back together the pieces of the same stars which, like a jigsaw, could have one only perfect match. And that, according to Arthur, was just the sappiest, and most lovely explanation for their romance one could have ever come up with.  
A gentle smile appeared on the American's face as these thoughts came across his mind. He put the glasses back on, stood up, and went near the wide window. He didn't really need any text, nor call. He knew exactly were Arthur had been the whole time but he wasn't ready to go to him, not yet. He took a piece of paper and a pen, and sat back at the table while a first, single snowflake fell from the night sky, just outside the window.

Arthur's lips trembled with cold as his arms tightened around his own chest in an useless attempt to keep himself warm. The rooftop of the skyscraper where the American lived had always been a sort of a meditation place for the British. He loved to feel the stronger wind, the slightly more rarefied air, and even the sense of dizziness that came over him every time his eyes glimpsed briefly over the edge. He found all of this relaxing, but not that time actually. He could not really tell why that was different from all of the other arguments he got into with Alfred, but taking a quick look at his wristwatch and realizing midnight was just fifteen minutes away, he felt a painful tangle in his throat and a few tears started running down his bright red cheeks.  
Not far from there, the cheers of the people in Times Square waiting for the last countdown of the year raised as the minutes passed by. Arthur's fingers touched gently the snow on the cornice, shivering a little as new flakes continued falling. They swung softly in the wind, like petals, before resting with the others on the first surface they met. But, as the English man was absorbed in observing the tiny crystal that had laid down on his nose tip, a snowball, threw with far too strength, hit him on the left shoulder. Arthur startled and turned around. His eyes widened as they met -to their own surprise- with the laughing face of the younger nation.

«You still suck at snowball fights, Artie!» he exclaimed.

«What do you want?» Arthur sulked, with his arms still wrapped around his bust while his whole body shivered with cold.

Alfred chuckled as he got near enough to catch hold of the other and squeeze him.  
«I just wanna warm you up! Will you ever stop pretending you're the tough guy?»

The British jumped trying without success to hit his exuberant partner.  
«What do you think you're doing?! Let me be, Alfred! You're a bloody animal! I can't breathe! What the hell is wrong with you? Weren't you mad at me up until a few minutes ago?»

Finally, Alfred let Arthur go and smiled sweetly, while putting a hand in the pocket of his bomber jacket and then pulling out several folded sheets of paper.  
«I have thought a lot, Arthur» He stated. «I have thought about you and me throughout all these years. You may say I'm just a brat, and that's true. And sometimes you're a pain in the ass, too. But still I don't believe in fate. You know what? The natural world is regulated by mathematical laws. The flower symmetry, the perfect proportion of the human body, the uniqueness of snow crystals, and so on. They're all depending on precise scientific rules. Nothing in this universe is led by fate. Everything has a reason. Even us. We have run after one another for centuries. We have loved each other for centuries. Ours is such a complicated universe that leaves not even the smallest particle to chance. So why should it do it with two people? I know for sure that the universe itself needed us to be together in order to keep its balance, and it needed me to give you this little present».

Thus said, he handed the Englishman innumerable sheets of paper. A puckering frown came over Arthur's face as he read the title in a puzzled voice.  
«“Two thousand and sixteen reasons why I love you”?! Are you even serious?»  
At first he let out an amused giggle, but as his green eyes scanned the seemingly infinite list a single tear fell on the paper, and his sight became progressively blurred. He bit his lower lip, but before he could even realize it he had already gave up on a liberating crying. He put a hand on his mouth trying to hold the sobs in vain while reading all the kind words of true total commitment Alfred had written for him.

Suddenly, a chorus of voices from Times Square began reciting the countdown.

10...

9...

8...

7...

«Do you really think all of these things about me, Alfred?»

«You know I do. It couldn't be any different».

6...

5...

4...

Arthur smiled softly while leafing through the several pages, until the final words on the last paper drew his attention.

3...

2...

1...

Tears of emotion began to stream down his face, and without hesitation he put his arms around the American's neck and pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss.  
Cries of joy and fireworks blasts echoed in the night sky. As the crowds spilled out in the streets, there on the rooftop of one of the many New York's skyscrapers Alfred and Arthur were welcoming 2016 their own way, under the still-falling snow.

«Happy new year, babe».

«Happy new year, love».

They both whispered on each other lips, while the sheets of paper fluttered in the wind, clutched in the British's hands.  
And that last sentence still warming his exhausted yet trembling heart.

_I'm glad the universe has shoved you into my arms._


End file.
